The first time I saw George Wyllie's work, I nearly crashed the company car
I was driving. I was in my early 20s at the time, and had only been driving
a few weeks, but the sight of a Straw Locomotive dangling forlornly over the
Clyde from the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow is still etched in my mind.

That was in 1987.

The first time I met George Wyllie in 2011, he demanded to know: "What's
your passion? The best thing you've ever done?" The thing about George
Wyllie, I have come to learn, is that he asks direct questions. Of you as a
person, your heritage, your creativity, and your whole philosophy on the world
in which you find yourself living. He made big things happen. He made art which
questioned everything and as someone who makes their living asking questions,
I like that. I also like the fact that he had no time for pretension. He worked
hard for a living all his life and at the age of 58, made 'time for art'.

Unlike many Friends of George Wyllie, I can't claim to have known him forever,
though I have admired his work for what seems forever. George has now gone off
on his Cosmic Journey, so in theory, is not here to see what it happening in
his name as part of The Whysman Festival 2012. I have my doubts though. George
knows, you know.